1. TeamMates Christmas Message by: Jack Lea Dec. 10, 2016

2. How We Got Here
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Christmas was less about goodwill and more about letting off steam.
While carols were sung, gifts given and feasts consumed, there was also lots of drinking, gambling and promiscuity.
Disapproving Puritans pointed to the traditional (and traditionally bawdy) pagan winter celebrations of Saturnalia and Yule, and accused modern revelers of carrying over pagan bad habits. (They also referred to the Christmas celebration as "the trappings of Popery" and "rags of the beast.”)
Such criticism led to the Catholic Church promoting Christmas in a more religiously-oriented way (rather than as an annual safety valve/opportunity for the oppressed underclasses), but that wasn't enough for Protestants, who banned Christmas in 1647 when Puritan rulers succeeded King Charles I after the English Civil War.
December 8, :36am

3. Subsequently, furious pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several
English cities, including Canterbury, which was controlled by mobs
for weeks.(Not as scary as it sounds, perhaps -- they mostly just chanted
royalist slogans and decorated things with holly.)
The Restoration of 1660 ended Puritan rule and the English ban on Christmas.

4. Puritans in the New World brought their ban with them, so in heavily Puritan
Boston Christmas wasn't celebrated between 1659 and 1681 (though
Virginians and New Yorkers kept the party going).
After the American Revolution, Christmas was seen as an English tradition
and fell out of favor in the states.
Meanwhile in England, Christmas seemed to be fading out along with the
religious and sectarian tensions that had shaped much of its history.

5. What Got Christmas Going Again?
Hymns
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” 1739 (Charles Wesley)
“Silent Night” 24 Dec 1818 (Fr. Mohr, Franz Gruber)
“Joy to the World” (Isaac Watts)
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” 1868 (Phillips Brooks)
“The First Noel” 1823 (Williams Sandy's & Davies Gilberts)
Queen Victoria - introduces the Christmas tree 1840
Queen Charlotte (German wife of George III introduced in1800)
Charles Dickens - “A Christmas Carol” 1843
What Got Christmas Going Again?

6. Today “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
“Frosty the Snowman”
“A Charlie Brown Christmas”

7. “Fear Not!” Hark the herald angels sing Listen to what they say
Man may live forever more,
Because of Christmas Day.”